Saturday night, C and I were hosting a dinner party for 4 of our friends. Two other married couples that I have known for a long time. We booked this dinner quite far in advance since we do rotating themed dinners. This party was Dinner and a Movie. The rules included that the food must be all homemade (as per every dinner in this series) and based on or inspired by a movie. After a lot of ideas, I decided on the movie Chocolat (2000). One of my favorites. If you haven't seen it, watch it now, but we sure to have dessert standing by. Starring Juliette Binoche, Judy Dench, and Johnny Depp, this is a visually beautiful and uplifting inspiring story. "When a single mother and her six-year-old daughter move to rural France and open a chocolate shop - with Sunday hours - across the street from the local church, they are met with some skepticism. But as soon as they coax the townspeople into enjoying their delicious products, they are warmly welcomed." excerpt from IMDb.
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movie Chocolat: go watch it, now! |
So, the meal was going to be French inspired food, with decadent chocolate dessert. In the movie, there is a dinner scene where some of the townspeople, grandmother (whose birthday everyone was celebrating) and the "river-rat" (Johnny Depp) are treated to a wonderful al fresco dinner by the wandering chocolate maker, Vienne (Juliette Binoche). They are served rich chunks of meat with chocolate sauce. At the end of the meal, dessert is served on a gypsy boat, and is full chocolate decadence.
Around 3pm, C went to meet a friend for a workout, and I decided to focus on the piece de resistance, the chocolate cake.
This wasn't any chocolate cake recipe. This was the Epicurious Double Chocolate Layer Cake. I stumbled across this cake on David Lebovitz's site at least a year ago, and have just never had a real opportunity to try this out. Here is the link to the recipe.
Since I had some quiet time, I decided that it would be a good opportunity to focus on the recipe with the most steps and using the most bowls.
Eggs were mixed until a soft lemon colour, about 5 minutes with a hand mixer.
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Eggs |
Semi-sweet chocolate was melted in freshly brewed coffee. The liquid ingredients blended in one bowl, the dry ingredients in another, and then all blended together. This recipe makes a large amount of batter but it's divided between 3 round cake pans (which i believe the recipe fails to mention).
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Chocolate cake batter |
After getting the cakes in the oven, I made the frosting so that it would have time to set a little in the fridge to thicken enough for icing the cake. The frosting uses a pound of chocolate, real butter, cream, sugar and corn syrup so you know it's going to be beyond decadent.
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Chocolate frosting |
C came home from his workout and the cooking began. The first thing I whipped up was the appetizer. A smoked salmon spread. We picked up some fresh figs, grapes and french baguettes and put them out onto a wooden cutting board and in a pretty bowl for serving. The salmon spread was simple. One package of smoked salmon fillet from Superstore, skin removed, into the food processor. A 250g container of light whipped cream cheese was added, along with the zest from one lemon, the juice from half the lemon, and salt, pepper, and dill.
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Smoked salmon spread ingredients |
Blend and done! I put this into a tiny cast iron pot and stuck it in the fridge to develop the flavour before dinner.
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Smoked salmon spread |
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Salmon spread, ready for serving |
Before more cooking was going to get started, I figured that I should have some lunch. So, I saved a hunk of the smoked salmon to put into an omelet with some alfalfa sprouts and homemade guacamole. My grandma would be happy too...fresh rye bread with real butter.
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Fuel before the cook-fest |
Cooking a large, multi-course dinner for 6 people (or more) is hectic and requires careful timing of all of the dishes to they are served at the same time, at their proper temperatures (whether that be hot, cold, or room temperature). C and I work a kitchen like a well oiled machine. We are veterans of the dinner party prep and we can each look after our own dishes, but timing them off of each others. We would probably look grumpy to an outsider, but it is that focus that we both have to execute the product to a certain standard. We bark times and questions, and "behind!" or "hot" as we move around the space. In the end though, everything went off without a hitch for the dinner. With the kitchen organized-chaos taking place and all of the counters packed, taking pictures would have just been too hard. Instead, I took end product pictures and will walk you through the dishes.
The appetizers were the salmon spread, as mentioned, served with fresh white and whole wheat baguette (which was did not make ourselves, lol), some fresh figs and grapes. Just something light, to take the hunger edge off while we finished our last dinner preparations and let our guests catch up with each other.
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Appetizer photo courtesy of Mrs RT. |
A fresh salad of spring greens, sliced almonds, crumbled light goat cheese with red wine poached pears and a balsamic dressing started the meal nicely. Light, fresh, sweet with a strong acid to cut through the fruit and the creamy tangy cheese was delightful! The ripe fresh pears were sliced up, put into a saucepan and red wine (we used a Cab-Sav
French style salad and dressing |
The side dishes followed my veggie rule: 2 different types of veggies of 2 distinct colours. The beautiful jewel toned beets were boiled, skinned (once the beets are cooked, they can be immersed in cold water and the skin should peel off in your rubber or latex glove clad hands...unless you'd like to stain them pink) and then topped with a drizzle of olive oil and seasoned with sea salt and cracked peppercorns. The green beans were seasoned the same. Simply steamed in a pan with some water over the stove, they retained a firm crunch and vivid green colour.
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Beets and green beans |
C was in charge of the chickens. He's often in charge of the protein portion of the meal, but definitely always in charge of poultry. I find chicken disgusting to handle, especially the skin. Brrr! It makes me shudder just to think about peeling off greasy cold chicken skin and fat from a bird or breaking it down. If I was to make chicken on my own, it would be boneless, skinless tenderloins of the bird. C has no problem handling the fryer chickens and did a bang-up job at it too. He seasoned the outside with herbs de province and then put them in a lovely Paderno non-stick roasting pan that we got for a steal at Canadian Tire last Christmas season. Breast side down, so that the meat absorbs the juices, and one basting. An hour later, perfectly moist, juicy chicken. This is one of my biggest complaints about most chicken is that it ends up dry and flavourless. C is the master at chicken and it was neither. Tender, moist, flavourful, juicy. while the chicken was cooking, he also baked some whole garlic bulbs in foil. Tops cut off and drizzled in olive oil, the final product results in cloves that can be squeezed easily from the firmer "husk" with a sweet mild flavour, not at all pungent like its raw version. These can then be spread over french baguette and enjoyed alongside the meal.
One of the keys to the al fresco dinner scene of the movie that I wanted to re-create was the rich chocolate sauce or gravy that was poured over top, bathing the meat. I found a mole recipe online and worked from there, until I got the consistency and taste that I wanted. I didn't want the sauce to be sweet since it was for poultry. I heated chicken stock and corn starch in a saucepan then added 1/4 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips and simmered the mixture until it thickened. I then added a dash of cinnamon, about a Tbsp of cocoa powder, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. The sauce turned out to be perfect. Rich but grown-up tasting. More bittersweet than sugary-sweet and a bit of bite from the pepper.
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Oven roasted chicken and garlic with chocolate gravy |
The meal was a big hit with our friends and we all enjoyed the comfort of good homemade food with some refreshing sparkling wine. Pleasant company and engaging conversation was bountiful. There's nothing quite as satisfying as sharing good food with good friends. The combination feeds both the body and the spirit.
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Dinner and a movie - the meal |
The movie Chocolat is based on the life of a chocolate maker, whose recipes and nomadic ways have been passed on throughout generations. She dispenses both sweets and life lessons to the townspeople who are spiritually lost and shrivelling under an oppressively rigid mayor. There are a number of scene where hot chocolate is served. It acts as a comfort in a cup. This hot chocolate is pure. Nothing more than melted chocolate and is given a pinch of chili powder before being served, to give it a little pick-me-up taste. The hot chocolate that I made was melted semi-sweet chocolate and milk chocolate in a litre of half and half, with some cinnamon and cayenne pepper whisked in until smooth. Served in little espresso cups provided by my friend, the indulgent little drink before dessert was the perfect prelude to what was yet to come. The cake. The air was already filled with the wonderful warm, sweet scent of melted chocolate from the drink, and the cake was waiting on the table, reaching room temperature and tempting our guests with its glossy coating.
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pouring hot chocolate from my classy measuring cup (photo courtesy of Mrs RT) |
Real hot chocolate |
The grand finale. The chocolate layer cake. I have to admit something. I am not a big fan of chocolate cake. I think it might have to do with most of the one that I recall having in the past being dry, crumbly, with gritty frosting and just not as wonderfully sweet as a vanilla cake. However, the theme definitely called for chocolate and my hopes were high using a recipe that was one of the most-made recipes on Epicurious. The luscious, glossy cake looked pretty impressive. I was being won over visually.
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Epicurious double chocolate layer cake |
I will fully admit that the taste of the cake was as good as it looked. Even better actually. The crumb was moist, dense, but not heavy. Almost like a cake brownie. The frosting was rich, creamy, but not overly sweet, and was more of a ganache. The cake itself held up wonderfully after being in the fridge and cut perfect pieces, showing off all it's glorious chocolate layers. This is definitely a make-again recipe as well as a never-make-it-again-because-I-will-eat-all-the-leftovers-the-next-day recipe.
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chocolate cake, cut |
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my new favorite cake |
I now have a new favorite cake. So good, in fact, that I am almost rethinking my grandma's 80th birthday cake. However, I decided to make the Perfect party Cake as planned, and as a compromise, cut 2 large slabs of this beauty, tucked them into Tupperware, and brought them over to her and my grandpa today, for their dessert tonight (along with a little container of homemade cherry cheesecake ice cream).
the end to a perfectly lovely meal |
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